Taylor Swift: Will the Hype Continue?

By Hope Hensley

Taylor Swift is a worldwide pop artist who is known for her emotional and catchy music that has been on the top charts for decades. Taylor is known for her ten albums: Debut, Fearless, Speak Now, Red, 1989, Reputation, Lover, folklore, evermore, and Midnights. However, at this year’s Grammys award show, Swift announced that she will be releasing a new eleventh album titled The Tortured Poets Department.

Swift shocked her whole fandom, known as the Swifties, when she announced this new album. Recently, Swift has been releasing re-recordings of her past albums, so the Swifties thought she would just announce a new re-release. 

Swift started producing music at the age of sixteen and signed with a record label Big Machine Records in Nashville, Tennessee. As an agreement to Taylor signing at Big Machine Records, they would also own her music that she produced at the label. Later in her career, Taylor decided to part from Big Machine Records and has recently discovered that she wanted to fully own her music. So, for the albums that she doesn't have full ownership over, she has been recording the songs again and releasing them under her name again but with “(Taylor’s Version)” beside each song. 

Taylor has re-released all but two of her past albums, Debut and Reputation, that she doesn’t own. Naturally, the fandom was waiting and expecting Taylor to announce her next re-release, which was rumored to be her album Reputation.

Taylor tends to share secrets and surprises at award shows. For example, at the 2022 MTV Video Awards show, Swift announced that she was releasing her album Midnights. So, everyone knew she had something up her sleeve for the 2024 awards. When Swift won her award for Pop Vocal Album, she went up to accept her award and announced her new album, leaving the Swifties speechless. 

Taylor Swift has had a very busy and successful year. On March 13, 2023, she started her world tour, the Eras Tour. The Eras Tour is a musical journey through the last ten years of music, going in and out of each era Swift has had throughout her career. The concert is around three and a half hours long and there is never a dull moment. 

Recently, the football world has been an addition to Swift's fandom. In December of 2023, Swift announced that she was in a romantic relationship with NFL player Travis Kelce. Since this announcement, Taylor has been to two Kansas City Chiefs games, which is the team Travis plays for. The Chiefs have now made it to the final game of the season, the Super Bowl, and many fans wonder if Swift will be able to make it due to her having a concert in Tokyo, Japan on the same day. 

Since the increase in Taylor Swift’s fandom, there is much more pressure for this next album to be just as popular as the others. Many Swifties wonder if this album will continue Taylor’s hype, or cause it to decrease? The name of this new album is quite different from the other albums, and the cover of the album is a picture of Swift lying in a bed. The photo is in black and white, making it more dramatic. 

Fans are making theories about what the album may sound like. Some believe that it may be an indie-folk album, like folklore, while others think it may be a dark pop album, like Reputation. However, I think that it may be a more romantic, slow style of album, like a mix of Lover and evermore. The featured artists on the albums also have very different styles of music than Swift normally produces. For example, Post Malone features in a song on the album, but Swift and Malone have very different styles of music and vocals. This is making many fans skeptical about how good the album will truly be.

With the announcement of the new album, Swift also released a photo of the back of the record on her Instagram, which shows the track titles. One song in particular caught the Swiftie’s eyes. The track “So Long, London” seems like it may be intertwined with Swift’s song “London Boy,” which was about her ex-boyfriend Joe Alwyn. 

Taylor and Joe dated for about six years and had a very private relationship. Joe is British and Taylor released Lover when they were together, so everyone could make a conclusion that “London Boy” was about him. Joe and Taylor broke up in April of 2023, and the whole world was in shock. Taylor was even spotted crying during “champagne problems” at one of the early shows for the Eras Tour. There have been some theories that “So Long, London” will be a song about her and Joe’s love and breakup, making the song extremely emotional. This will make the album a romantic and passionate addition to Taylor Swift’s style. 

Overall, this next album will be pivotal to Swift’s ongoing success and popularity. Will she continue to be the biggest pop artist today, making billions of dollars and selling out stadiums? I think it could go both ways. This album seems like it won’t be the same type of genre of music as her past popular albums. The vibe of this album, so far, is very solemn and smooth, and Swift’s biggest hits are pop and bubbly. So, when this album is released, it could be a new style of music that most listeners won’t be used to coming from Swift. But, it could also result in a new group of music fans joining the Swifties. It’s all in the hands of the artist now.